asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will give the cost to his Department of payments made to persons receiving workmen's compensation who qualify for extra social welfare benefit.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers - Extra Social Welfare Benefit.
52.
Records which would enable the information requested by the Deputy to be obtained are not kept in my Department. The required particulars could not be extracted without a very considerable expenditure of time and labour.
Will the Minister not admit that the payments referred to in the question are a heavy drain on the Department and that, in fact, the Department are subsidising the insurance companies in this connection?
That is a separate matter.
It is in the question. The Minister wants to reply. Perhaps you would allow him, Sir.
It is a fact that a person drawing maximum workmen's compensation, a man with a wife and two or more children, would also be entitled to some disability benefit.
Surely there is a special record kept of that?
No, there is not.